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I've never liked the water levels in Mario games. I think the main reason is their controls, especially in 2D platformers. Without certain power-ups, Mario controls like a sluggish, stiff brick who constantly sinks underwater where you repeatedly have to mash the A button in order to get any distance or to surface. And on top of Mario controlling sluggishly, he's virtually powerless underwater in that he can't jump at all, causing underwater levels to be a slow obstacle course that don't play to Mario's advantages in the slightest. What baffles me is that the unfun nature of water levels in the 2D platformers gets retained until NSMBU, and that the control scheme gets reused for 3D Land where Mario's default state is falling like a brick while you mash the A button to go anywhere.
I think the best way to address these controls is to take a look at how you swim in real life. When you swim, do you retain an upright pose like this and do you sink yourself by not waving your arms around?
No, you don't! You swim more like this, more parallel to the ground with your head indicating what direction you should go to:
While I do think Super Mario 64's swimming is also very sluggish and bad to play in and that you're stuck with no attacks, there's Super Mario Galaxy's swimming mechanics, which felt fine, and as Mario, you can spin around all day, making it pretty fun to swim (though as Luigi, you can't do it because it takes away more air than Mario's spin does). They ruined it in Galaxy 2, where the spin now has a recharge time and I have to ask myself, why did they take away the most fun aspect of swimming in Galaxy 2?
And then, it gets changed again in 3D World - Odyssey, where Mario is once again stuck with this awkward, stiff swimming style that is present in the 2D games where you have to wait to get to the bottom, and that in Odyssey, you'll only ever have fun in the water levels if you take control of a Cheep Cheep, which swims like a normal creature would.
One of my main problems is that fun swimming controls like the Penguin suit and the Frog suit that make Mario actually control to how he should swim underwater are relegated to power-ups and I must ask myself: why? Why are power-ups the required way to actually make some of these stages fun and to make your character actually control better? What also doesn't help is that Toadette in NSMBUDX also has enhanced swimming controls that make the stages better to play in, rendering some of these power-ups just moot. The stages should be fun by default, it shouldn't be sloppy to control in its default state. Kirby's Epic Yarn, for example, had a power-up that enhances water levels in form of a dolphin, but even the default swimming controls feel fine.
The only thing I can say is that...at least it's not Sonic's water segments?
I think the best way to address these controls is to take a look at how you swim in real life. When you swim, do you retain an upright pose like this and do you sink yourself by not waving your arms around?
No, you don't! You swim more like this, more parallel to the ground with your head indicating what direction you should go to:
While I do think Super Mario 64's swimming is also very sluggish and bad to play in and that you're stuck with no attacks, there's Super Mario Galaxy's swimming mechanics, which felt fine, and as Mario, you can spin around all day, making it pretty fun to swim (though as Luigi, you can't do it because it takes away more air than Mario's spin does). They ruined it in Galaxy 2, where the spin now has a recharge time and I have to ask myself, why did they take away the most fun aspect of swimming in Galaxy 2?
And then, it gets changed again in 3D World - Odyssey, where Mario is once again stuck with this awkward, stiff swimming style that is present in the 2D games where you have to wait to get to the bottom, and that in Odyssey, you'll only ever have fun in the water levels if you take control of a Cheep Cheep, which swims like a normal creature would.
One of my main problems is that fun swimming controls like the Penguin suit and the Frog suit that make Mario actually control to how he should swim underwater are relegated to power-ups and I must ask myself: why? Why are power-ups the required way to actually make some of these stages fun and to make your character actually control better? What also doesn't help is that Toadette in NSMBUDX also has enhanced swimming controls that make the stages better to play in, rendering some of these power-ups just moot. The stages should be fun by default, it shouldn't be sloppy to control in its default state. Kirby's Epic Yarn, for example, had a power-up that enhances water levels in form of a dolphin, but even the default swimming controls feel fine.
The only thing I can say is that...at least it's not Sonic's water segments?
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